Weblog of Jared Holloway

Religion & Politics – Would Jesus Vote?

All the news can seem to talk about is this new political figure – Gov. Sarah Palin, AK-R, and her religious right tendencies. From her attending a church service in where a guest speaker said that Israelis – i.e. Jews in Israel suffered terrorist attacks because they did not believe in Jesus, to her being raised Pentecostal. Next, because of her beliefs being brought up, the attacks on Barak Obama’s beliefs also resurfaced (he received no help from his “my Muslim faith” “slip”). Everything from his alledged Islamic faith, to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy. If you had in John Hagee’s previous endorsement of McCain – then McCain not wanting to be associated with someone who calls the Roman Catholic Church the Anti-Christ, to pictures of Joe Biden going to Catholic Mass, religion once again is playing a seemingly crucial part of the 2008 Presidential Election. My question is why?

First, very few, if any major politicians in the United States, especially in the Presidential elections, have been anything but “Christian.” All of the way from President George Washington on down through Presdent George W. Bush, they have all claimed the Christian faith, and have attended services of worship, and have even had “pastoral advisers,” probably most famously Rev. Billy Graham. Is it because the religious right helped insure the election of President George Bush, famously the most infamous president – other then maybe Richard Nixon, in our nation’s history, that Christianity is playing such a large role in the discussion? Or is it the religious left vs. religious right… pro-life vs. pro-choice, pro-gay vs. pro-hetero (I know that probably isn’t a term), pro-patriarchy vs. pro-feminism? Ironically, neither side can claim autonomy on either side. In fact, what is the religious right, and what is the religious left? Would it be more correct to say the Christian right and left, or is that even too much. For, on one side, people say how can you be a Roman Catholic and be pro-choice? OR, how can you be a Christian and not love the homosexual, condemning them. How can you believe in a God who subjugateswomen, and so on and so on. It is interesting to me that even the so called “believers in Christ” cannot even agree on seemingly so many important issues. Maybe Christianity is not progressive enough, maybe Jesus Christ was meant only for the time in which He was born – maybe that is why He had to be born then. At the same time, maybe Christianity has gone too far – in both directions. The moniker, “What Would Jesus Do,” is ridiculous to me, however, who would Jesus vote for? IT is obvious He would vote, if He were a citizen of the USA. He obviously believed in the role of government, and in the civil support of the government – i.e. render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and so forth, even though most modern historians claim Him to be a revolutionary. Would Jesus make each candidates faith the central issue, would he make their actions? Their judgments? Would He care is Gov. Palin spoke in tongues (she was raised Pentecostal), or if Barak Obama’s pastor was inflamatory? If I recall, John the Baptist was pretty inflamatory. What issues would matter to Jesus? And which issues would simply blow off of his robes like chaff in the wind? In fact, would Jesus’s message or love, personal devotion to God, and personal service to each other even reach the ears of the people in the world today? Would Jesus be touted as a liberal, or reviled as a conservative? All of the questions, to me, are interesting, as well as seeminly important. For, if we claim to be Christian, no matter of the fact if we are liberal or conservative, if we are to truly claim to be Christ-like, we must ask ourselves, “How Would Jesus Vote?” We have to ask ourselves, do we even care? And if we do not care, then why do we believe, or even, do we believe? For if Jesus is the Savior or the World, then I am pretty sure his opinions, and His vote, would be the most important of all.

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6 thoughts on “Religion & Politics – Would Jesus Vote?”

It is very wise that we do ask these questions. Often people that are not from USA (like me being from UK) get confused about the mixing and matching that happens in politics and religion. Disbelief at how anyone can claim to be Christian despite the fact that their lifestyle can be significantly different to that of what the Bible is telling us will be expected of us, standards we need to live up to as followers of Christ. In other words let me quote James from the New testament Let me see your dead’s and I will known your faith. Or haw can you say you have faith in Christ but what you do is contrary to that of the teachings of Jesus. Like you I worry about people being liberal and conservative, they say that modern Christians in China have complained that new missionaries have broth only divisions and discord, as all the “Free Bibles” came with the strings attached i.e. that the receptionists will now have to adopt new theology. Which they rightly objected to as they would say should we not stick with what we find in the Bible. And this is what the first reformers said in 15th Century we need 1 Sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”); 2 Sola fide (“by faith alone”); 3 Sola gratia (“by grace alone”); 4 Solus Christus (“Christ alone”). We can be easily deceived and forget the riches we have in Christ Jesus and are far to easily satisfied with trivial staff and will gladly trade Christ for worldly glory and recognition. But what I find so encouraging is to find that there are also many out there in the real world who Love Christ and are happy to share their love and experience and personal testimonies.

Hmmm, this is a good one. Defend the word has written, “Disbelief at how anyone can claim to be Christian despite the fact that their lifestyle can be significantly different to that of what the Bible is telling us will be expected of us, standards we need to live up to as followers of Christ and also the fact that we send Bibles with strings attached to China.” That’s a good one too! Maybee we need to start a whole new string on that one. With the risk of knowing this will probably start something could we ask that maybe, just maybe we as Americans are reaping what we’ve sewn? Meaning let us really think of how this country was started? 1)Rebellion, 2) Forcing Christianity on others. We can probably make the list go on. Sorry I probably just made some mad, but countries reap what is sewn.

Hi, interesting discussion. I believe Jesus is the greatest man that walked the Earth. He would “know” who was dishonest or cheating or had good intentions beforehand so HE would vote for the right person or at least the less dangerous one (as there are no saints in politics), or if HE saw that both candidates were evil would say it in public. I have no doubt about that. As to those who say they are Christians but do not live as one, that’s how we all behave on this planet, we never have given ourselves a real chance to live the way Jesus taught. It’s always said that to live loving each other truly (unconditionally and in spite of …) is utopia and is reserved for those few who have been “illuminated.” But Jesus said that to love only those who are good and nice to us has no real merit, the challenge is to love all even though they might be our enemies and/or the worst people you can find, because that’s the way to progress spiritually. Why do you think there are so many different people in this world? It is time we left behind our differences and lived in a real communion (common union), not competing to be the best or the wisest stepping on our brothers’ heads for the sake of worldly success, which is ephemeral (we leave this world the same way we came: naked). That does not mean we should tolerate vicious behaviours; we just have to remit to what Jesus said, or the great men like Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, etc, for that matter, and we shall be able to discern right from wrong, good from evil, it’s simpler than what we think.

Peace and Goodness,
Marcos

Hey, by the way, It’s Jesus’ not Jesus’s and it’s grammar not grammer, Big Bro.

I do not think the point is that people believe in Christ, etc, but the point was, to call yourself “Christ-like” and not live in accordance to the name/title you give yourself is on the “border” of hypocrisy. Now, please do not get me wrong, I am not asking that we change the name of a religion to something more suitable, but it intrigues me that the main “competition” for Christianity in the world, Islam, sets its own believers up for success. Islam, simply, means submission. To be a true Muslim, one must submit to the will of God, aka, Allah. It sounds complicated, but there is a set-in-stone approach called the Five Pillars of Islam, and as long as you follow these guide lines, you are set. On the other hand, Christians, by the name alone, set themsleves up for people to blast away – because as blogsurfer mentioned, no one can fully walk as Christ walked. Hence, the early name given to Christians, by Christians, was The Way – for they believed that Christ was the Way to the Father and so on and so forth. I do not expect fellow Christians to walk perfectly as Christ walked, however, I do expect those who profess, especially the ones who do so greatly in public – i.e. politicians, pastors, CEO’s, and the like – to at least live their life like they mean it, and I expect Christians to at least attempt to find God in the decisions they make, especially those decisions as important as this countries elections, etc. No one is perfect, me in the least, and I expect no one to be perfect – the world would not be any fun, however, even though we cannot live up to the name that the Roman Empire gave the believers of Christ in the First Century, we can certainly strive to better ourselves, educate ourselves, and to follow the precepts that Christ gave us, in every walk of our life, including the political sphere of this country.